How much will a CT scan show?

[SpainToday]

Last week I had a cystoscopy which showed an area of inflammation that may or may not be cancer. Next week I've having it removed under general anaesthetic and it will be sent off for testing. The nurse said that most people are diagnosed with Stage 0 or Stage 1, so I'm trying to stay calm.

Also, in September I had a CT scan of my kidneys, uretha and bladder as my GP wanted to check me for kidney stones - none were there, and no other abnormalities were identified. But from everything I've read since, a plain CT KUB scan should pick up growths and tumours except for the very smallest ones, so I'm hoping that whatever my cystoscopy identified, was either not there in September, or was so small it wasn't detected. Does anyone know if I'm thinking about this correctly?

I had a grade 1 ovarian tumour and full hysterectomy , CT scans were absolutely used to check for any other areas of concern - I had a few scans

I imagine that you're right, the thing they found was either too small or not present to be of concern in the last CT scan.
The only thing that picks up more than that would be an MRI?

I hope it's nothing serious and wishing you well x

Thank you both for replying, this is helping me feel more positive

Did they use a contrast liquid for the CT scan ? I think it shows up more if they do.

No it was a plain CT KUB

Just to add that I think a contrast liquid CT scan shows up practically everything, but a plain CT scan (which I had) shows up everything but the smallest things, and is sensitive enough to show kidney and bladder stones

A CT scan generally can see things as small as a few mm. Assuming that whoever is doing the report doesn’t miss something because they aren’t necessarily looking for it. A friend’s dc had a head injury and needed a CT scan. They were told the scan was normal and sent on their way from A&E. 4 months later, totally by chance, someone happened to re-review the scan and found a brain tumour! It was obvious but completely missed the first time because I think they were looking for a blood clot or fluid or whatever would be worrying after a child gets whacked in the head playing.

That said, a CT scan is only as good as what it’s able to show on the day. I had a CT scan (with contrast) and by the time they called me 3 weeks later to tell me it was clear, I literally could see the cancer growing again. It came back that quickly.

The fact though that it sounds like you’ve been having symptoms for awhile combined with the recent CT scan is hopefully good news meaning this is something that has been rumbling along for awhile, but not obviously cancer as per your recent scan.

That makes sense @mindutopia thank you.